More
info to follow. See the article
at the
Center for Reproductive Rights!

****************************************************************

ORGANIZING PAYS! Progress
on the
Morning-After Pill

Victory
for Women! Ruling in Morning-After Pill Lawsuit

On March 23, 2009, a U.S. District judge ruled that the Food and Drug
Administration (FDA) must reconsider its decision to place unnecessary
restrictions on the Morning-After Pill (also known by its brand name,
Plan B). The Court ordered the FDA to act within 30 days to extend
over-the-counter access to Plan B to 17 year olds (the drug was previously
limited to women ages 18 and up). The Court also ruled that the FDA
must reconsider whether to approve over-the-counter status for women
of all ages.

All along, feminists have accused the FDA of toeing the anti-birth
control line of the Bush Administration in their decision making on
the Morning-After Pill. Today, the Court agreed. U.S. District
Court Judge Edward R. Korman found that the FDA "acted in bad faith
and in response to political pressure" and engaged in "repeated and
unreasonable delays.” For more information, see http://reproductiverights.org
or http://ccrjustice.org/.

The Morning-After Pill Conspiracy has been leading the grassroots
fight against restrictions on the Morning-After Pill. Nine of the
coalition’s founding members are plaintiffs in the lawsuit,
which was originally filed in January 2005. The coalition has sponsored
consciousness raising, speak-outs, rallies, pickets, and a sit-in
at FDA headquarters.

Feminist organizing – in the streets and in the courts –
has forced the FDA to grant over-the-counter access to the Morning-After
Pill for women ages 17 and up. This is a huge victory for women’s
liberation!

We started this, now let’s follow it through! The Court says
the FDA must reconsider its decision, so let’s make sure they
do the right thing this time.

Not only are young women’s rights at stake, the age restriction
affects all women. It puts the pill behind the counter and
in pharmacists’ hands, and it forces older women to endure the
insult of showing an ID to get birth control. We shouldn’t have
to find a drug store with a pharmacist on duty, answer questions about
our sex lives in a drug store line, or worry about whether the pharmacist
will refuse to sell it to us based on supposed “moral”
beliefs.

Plan B is a safe and effective form of birth control that should be
on the shelf next to condoms at gas stations and grocery stores.

****************************************************************

The Morning-After Pill Conspiracy
-
Who We Are

The Morning-After Pill
(MAP) Conspiracy is a coalition of feminist organizations leading the
grassroots fight against restrictions on the Morning-After Pill.

The coalition was founded in
January 2004 when the MAP was
only available in the U.S. through a doctor’s prescription. We believe
that grassroots
organizing by women was a major factor in the FDA’s decision in 2006 to
allow
women, ages 18 and up, to purchase the pill at pharmacies, without a
prescription.
Nine of our founding members are also plaintiffs in a lawsuit against
the FDA (Tummino vs von
Eschenbach) charging
the agency with discrimination against women and failure to follow
medical
science in their decisions on the MAP. The lawsuit could result in the
removal
of the age restriction and behind-the-counter status.

The Morning-After Pill
Conspiracy uses a variety of creative
methods to protest the FDA and the Bush Administration’s stance on the
MAP,
including speak-outs and civil disobedience.Our
goal is to highlight the injustice of the restrictions and to show
that women are the real experts when it comes to birth control.

The
Women's Liberation
Birth-Control Project (formerly
New York NOW
Reproductive Rights
Task Force)

Gainesville
Area (FL)
National
Organization for Women (NOW)

Florida
NOW Young Feminist
Task
Force

Gainesville
(FL) Women’s Liberation

University
of Florida
Campus NOW

New
Morning Foundation -
South Carolina

Update

In 2009 Gainesville Women’s Liberation and the Women’s
Liberation Birth Control Project founded National
Women’s Liberation (NWL), a feminist group for women who
want to fight back against male supremacy and win more freedom for
women. NWL continues to lead the grassroots fight against restrictions
on the Morning-After Pill as one of its main priorities.